The Rest of the Iceberg will help you understand the world. It answers questions and explains the backstories so you can make sense of what you see on the surface. That understanding will help you engage the world’s challenges better.

Every four years, people all over the world watch as the results of the American presidential election come in. By the end of the night, the result is usually clear but how the process actually works is anything but. The source of confusion is the Electoral College. To win, a candidate needs to have 270 votes in the Electoral College. But what is it? What is the relationship between the few hundred voters in the Electoral College and the tens of millions who went to the polls on election day? It seems a bizarre way of choosing the president of the most powerful country in the world.

Ask a European, and they will tell you that Americans are violent. It’s not true. The number of assaults in America is similar to that in other countries. However, Americans are much more likely to die when attacked. The reason is guns. Americans citizens own as many guns as the rest of the world combined. Why?